Chapter 3

Warren laughed in disbelief, blinking back tears before they could fall onto his phone.

He wanted to block Rose and delete her number. Instead, he typed: [I'm busy.]

Rose quickly sent the video of his sister again. She did not need to say anything else as what she meant was quite obvious.

His grip tightened until his knuckles turned white.

Angelica saw the message and almost lost control of her emotion. "My daughter's dead! What more does she want?! Give me the phone! Does she have to destroy what's left of my little girl before she'll leave us alone?!"

Warren held her as they both cried. "Mom, please. I'll go. We just have to get through these seven days. If Rose realizes we're leaving, she'll never let us leave."

Joe's directions were vague, and Warren arrived sweating with barely a moment to spare.

Rose had said someone would meet him at the entrance. He could see a man waiting there. As he drew closer, he recognized him and his stomach dropped.

For a moment, he could hardly think through the fury as his eyes turned red.

He knew that face.

It was Ozzy Jenkins, the man who had raped his sister!

Ozzy sashayed over with a grin when he saw Warren. He said, "Well, look who it is. Joe sent me out to get you, Mr. Sutton. What took you so long? Couldn't you get here any faster? I've been standing here forever."

Warren dug his nails into his palms, trying to keep himself under control. "Joe invited you?"

The words almost choked him.

Ozzy looked happy at the question. "Of course! He's such a great guy. I told him I'd never been to anything fancy, so he brought me along. He said since I'm his client, I might as well see how big the world could really be.

"His girlfriend's pretty great too. I heard that she's apparently the CEO of some big public company. See this suit? She had it made for me. You could learn something from him. There's a reason he landed a woman like that and you didn't.

"Oh, right. I forgot about that promiscuous sister of yours. Guess it runs in the family."

Warren was barely keeping it together as he listened to Ozzy. In the end, he could no longer hold it in even as he gritted his teeth. He threw the suit at Ozzy and went after him with his fists. "Don't you dare talk about her! I'll kill you!"

Someone dragged him back before he could land more than a few blows.

Joe came outside with Rose on his arm with a frown. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Warren? That's my client! Apologize to him!"

"Apologize?" Warren let out a bitter laugh. "He ruined my sister's life, and you want me to apologize?"

Joe stopped smiling. "Careful. He hasn't been convicted of anything. That's slander."

He let go of Rose and raised his chin. "What do you think? I shouldn't be the one to decide. It wouldn't be fair."

Rose found Joe's stubbornness endearing. The coldness in her eyes disappeared when she looked at him, and she said fondly, "Oh, you."

Then she spoke without so much as glancing at Warren. "Get down on your knees and apologize."

He stared at her with wide eyes as he instinctively started, "Are you insane, Rose? You know what he…"